


Lost and Found

by peacehopeandrats



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen, Rumbelle Secret Santa 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28332873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peacehopeandrats/pseuds/peacehopeandrats
Summary: Belle and Rumple have planned a date night, but things don't work out the way Belle expected them to. Instead of a nice dinner out, she ends up wandering through the snow in search of a mysterious stranger. When she finds him her life is changed forever.Nominated for Best Date Overall and Best RSS in the 2021 TEAsThank you.
Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Comments: 18
Kudos: 24





	Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lotus0kid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotus0kid/gifts).



> Written for Rumbelle Secret Santa 2020. 
> 
> Lotus0kid prompted "If lost, please return to..." and I was immediately struck with this idea to bring two hearts together.
> 
> Hope it warms your heart whenever a day gets cold for you.

When the knock at the door came, the King and Queen were ready for it.

Of course, in order to get to the entrance, David had to practically dance around the piles of boxes that filled their small space. They grew out of the floor like stalagmites in a cave, randomly sprouting beside furniture, near counters, and occasionally out in the open. In the end he reached his destination without incident, opening the apartment’s heavy door with a beaming smile to greet his guest. “Gideon! How are you doing, hm? I know that Neal will be very happy to have someone to spend the night with tonight.”

Held by his mother, baby Gideon let out only soft burbles in response, so Belle spoke for him. “Thank you for doing this. I know it really can’t be a convenient time for you to…” Her voice trailed off as she caught a peek at the chaos in the room beyond and her eyes instantly narrowed with concern. “Are you _sure_ this is a all right?”

With a shrug, David glanced over his shoulder at Snow, who was sitting off to the side, well out of Belle’s view. Busily typing on her phone, she seemed completely engrossed in the business at hand. Probably for the best, he decided before turning back to Belle with a smile that he hoped looked as genuine as he needed it to be. “Nonsense. Snow and I have burdened you often enough, it’s about time we returned the favor. Besides, according to your own schedule he’ll only be awake for a few hours.”

Belle’s head tipped to the side. “You’re sure? Rumple has a hard enough time letting Gideon out of his sight for ten minutes. I think he could be easily persuaded to include him in our plans for the evening. I really don’t want to be an imposition and you are already so busy here getting ready for your move.”

“Not an imposition,” David insisted, looking back at Snow who now nodded at him. “And I know how hard it was to convince your husband to spend a few hours away from home with you. _I_ was the one that did most of the convincing.”

“Trust me,” Snow chimed in as she stood and came to the door. David felt her hand on his back when she passed him and leaned ever so slightly into the touch, welcoming the warmth and tenderness of it. It reminded him that they were doing the right thing, for the right reasons. “I fought date nights away from Neal too, at first. You don’t know how necessary they are until you actually have one.”

A hum of playful judgment escaped Belle before she swallowed back a giggle. “Wasn’t _I_ the one here for the first of those nights?”

“You were,” Snow admitted with a nod and a smile. “Which is just another bit of evidence that tells me we owe you this favor.” In full queen mode now, she held out her arms for Gideon in a manner that said she was no longer going to debate the issue.

Belle passed the bundle of blanket and baby over, then pulled his bag from her shoulder and held it out for David to take. “You’ll call if you need us.”

“Yes, but we won’t need you. Now, go enjoy your dinner together,” David insisted.

Turning to leave, Belle glanced down at something she was still holding in one hand, then held it up for the couple to see. “Oh, I found this just outside.” She offered it over to them and David took a brief glance at the object before shaking his head.

“Never seen it,” he said, trying not to sound too casual. “But it looks like there’s writing on it.” He nodded at the imprinted lettering on the side that was facing him.

Belle examined it closely and read the text aloud. “Silverback Landscaping. If lost, please return to 12060 Seventh Avenue.”

“David!” Snow’s exclamation almost made him jump. “Isn’t that the company that was hired to work on the park at the point? The one Henry always went to?” Her wide eyes left her husband’s and turned to Belle. “The landscaper was just in here this morning finalizing some of the new plans. I bet-”

Her rambling was thankfully cut off by the sound of a phone. Belle pulled her device from her pocket and stared at it, frowning at the lit text on the screen. “It’s Rumple. Someone needed his help in the shop. He’s going to be delayed by about an hour.” She sighed and pocketed it again, then gazed up at David with sad eyes. “Maybe I should-”

“No.” David swung his body around so that Belle couldn’t reach the bag on his shoulder. “I am not spending another two weeks arguing with Rumplestiltskin about taking time away from his child. If you want to do us a favor, grant me _that_ favor.”

Belle’s soft giggle filled the air and she bobbed her head in agreement. “All right, but you’ll let me take care of this, then.” She brandished the zippered pouch. “I can walk down to Seventh Avenue in about fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, but it’s freezing outside,” Snow protested, her concern making David flinch. They would never get rid of Belle if his wife kept up this act. “And the winter storm just ended yesterday. Are you sure you want to do that now? We could keep it here and call them in the morning.”

“No, I don’t mind. I enjoy a walk in any kind of weather. Besides, Rumple’s castle was up in the mountains,” Belle told her with certainty. “Our winters there were much colder than most places and we had plenty of snow. I’m used to it. I’ll be fine.”

Snow tried to answer, but David nudged his way between her and Belle, putting his hand back on the door, ready to close it. “If you’re sure.”

After what seemed like an eternity, but must have only been one heartbeat, Belle nodded. “If it’s too much, I’ll wait at the park and have Rumple come get me, but I’ll be fine. Really.” She smiled and angled her body so that she could get a good look at her son. “Bye-bye, Gideon. Someone will be back to get you after you fall sleep, okay?”

Once Belle was headed away, David closed the door and leaned against it with a heavy sigh. “For a while there I thought we’d never get her to leave. You, my dear, were almost _too_ convincing.”

“Do you think she bought it?” Snow gently rocked Gideon as she spoke.

David shrugged. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

* * *

The air was crisp, but not unpleasant in the low light of the coming evening. Winter was everywhere around her and Belle found her mind wandering as she strolled down the sidewalk. Someone had shoveled most of it, but now and then she encountered a small patch of snow where the click of her shoes mingled with the crunch of white powder under her feet. She could almost imagine the noises as the pop and whisper of a hearth fire. The illusion was given further life by the many homes that released smoke from their chimneys to drift through the world, free to roam as it pleased. It tickled her nose and awoke her senses, warming her by thought alone.

She enjoyed every season in its own way and though winter was not as much of a favorite as summer, there were some parts of it that pulled at her heart. The chill of a snowy night always nudged her thoughts into the realm of romance and togetherness, bringing to mind warm blankets and the dancing flames of yellow heat that drew the cold from the skin. It felt like it had been ages since she and Rumple had settled in front of a fire with a cup of tea and reminisced about the days in the castle when she would sit beside the hearth in the library and read while he spun at the wheel. The casual glances, the tiny smiles, the way Rumple would become so caught up in watching her that he would actually forget the wheel entirely… Yes, they were in love even then, though neither of them was willing to admit it and Belle believed that their recent struggles only made that love stronger.

When she reached Seventh Avenue, Belle glanced down at the leather pouch in her hand to check that she’d ended up in the right place. Though the address was clearly marked, her quest did not end where she had expected it to. Instead of finding a warehouse or collection of sheds, she now faced a long row of sweet little family homes, arranged to face the water, each painted like a colored jewel. Red, green, yellow, and blue, the buildings stretched on down the road with no signs of converting into any type of utilitarian structure suitable as a landscaper’s paradise. 

Deciding that perhaps the address would lead her to the business owner’s private residence, she followed the sidewalk a short way to take in the numbers of each home. One by one the numerals changed until she stopped short at a “For Sale” sign on the corner with the number 12060 clinging to its white, wooden post as if they were afraid to fall into the pile of shoveled snow at its base. 

“Where do you truly belong?” Belle muttered to the pouch she held. It was tempting to tug at the zipper and poke around inside for other identifying papers, but she resisted. There were probably folded blueprints or work permits inside that weren’t truly any of her business anyway and what help would those provide? 

“Hey, Belle!” A familiar, cheerful voice tumbled out at her from some point in the near distance. She turned to it and found a temporary workman’s trailer set up on the opposite side of the street. Marked clearly with the logo of the Silverback Landscaping Company, it blocked the entrance to the park and had obviously been the site of heavy foot traffic, considering the number of bootprints in the snow surrounding it. 

“Grumpy. What are you doing here? Don’t tell me you gave up work in the mines.” Belle crossed the road and gave the dwarf a warm smile before holding out the zippered pouch for him to take. “I think this must belong to you.”

He shook his head. “Nah. I’m just dropping some stuff off that the guys needed for tomorrow.” Ignoring the proffered item, Grumpy descended the few steps from the trailer’s dark interior and turned to shut the door. “Didn’t expect to see you out here tonight. I thought you said you and Rumplestiltskin had a dinner date planned. That was tonight, wasn’t it?”

“It was,” Belle sighed. “He’s been delayed though. I found this at the Nolans’ and told them I’d bring it by while I waited.” Assuming he would simply take the documents once he was free, Belle peeked around the temporary building and into the park beyond. “Not the usual time of year for landscaping,” she commented, unable to fight the curiosity that burned inside of her.

Grumpy gave her a shrug. “When the right people want something done, they find a way to make happen.” His eyes finally drifted down to the pouch, but instead of reaching for it, he put his hands in his pockets and nodded down the path that lead to the water. “Hey, I know the guy who’s been looking for that. He’s down at the end of the trail.”

Belle tipped her head to the side in confusion. “Can’t I just put it the building?”

“I think he needs it delivered personally,” Grumpy told her, body stiff with a sudden unease that Belle couldn’t quite understand. “I’ll stay here if you want. Make sure you get down there safely.”

“He’s working… In the dark…” There was nothing about this that felt right to her, yet she found herself almost compelled to follow her friend’s gaze into the almost night. She felt she should trust him, even if she couldn’t understand why.

Another shrug pulled at the dwarf’s shoulders before his eyes became intense with a need for understanding. His hands reached up to her upper arms and grasped them in a firm yet friendly way. “Look, sister, I know that man down there and I know how badly he needs what you’re bringing to him. I wouldn’t send you if I thought he would do you any harm. You can believe that, can’t you?”

“Yes…” The acceptance of his word felt somehow less than it should have, yet Belle nodded in spite of many questions.

“Good.” Grumpy pulled away and stepped back to the side of the worker’s station. “I’ll wait here, just in case, but you won’t need me.”

Reluctantly, Belle moved away, head angled to look back at him from over her shoulder. The dwarf only smiled and bounced on his toes as if trying to keep warm, giving no other hint of what made this delivery so important that it must be done personally. After a few steps she succumbed to the madness of it all, turning her full attention to the snow-covered path and the single set of footprints that guided her forward, to the park’s outermost point and the water’s edge. The prints were somehow familiar and it occurred to Belle that she hadn’t asked for the name of the person she was to meet, but when she turned back the way she had come, Grumpy was no longer there.

Standing alone in the approaching night, Belle felt a shiver come over her. She thought about Rumple and wondered what he would think of this unusual journey that she had put upon herself in the name of newly rekindled friendship. How much longer did she have before he began looking for her? Half an hour? Perhaps slightly more if the business he had to deal with was something other than the simple transaction he implied had come up. 

Ahead of her, the golden glow of tiny lights blinked into being, a change so sudden that she jumped back and nearly dropped the pouch she carried. Wrapped around a potted evergreen, the tiny specks illuminated the path and seemed to bring life to another set of small bulbs on a tree beyond. This continued in a chain reaction, on both sides of the trail that she occupied, drawing her eye into the distance where larger, barren trees had been arranged by the waterside, their dark forms a silhouette of thick limbs in what remained of the evening’s light. 

Belle smiled at her own uncertainties, realizing that the landscapers must be setting up the winter festival displays, a suspicion that was confirmed when she caught sight of movement up ahead, where the shape of someone in a dark winter cloak could just be made out in the darkness. Whoever it was seemed half bent to their work and she reasoned that they must have been left behind to test that the lights were all properly functional. It all made perfect sense now, and with this new knowledge, she strode forward with renewed purpose, eager to pass off her responsibilities and return to her husband.

“Hello?” She called out, breath forming puffs of mist in front of her. “I have some documents here for you.”

The shrouded figure didn’t move or straighten and after a moment Belle came to realize that it wasn’t a man stooped to his work at all, but someone standing straight and tall, with a hint of silent strength and power, to suggest whoever was in front of her bent to no one. There was something very familiar in that stoicism and for a brief moment Belle’s heart skipped a beat. The last time she had seen anyone with such a similar posture had been her own son, older than he was now, and filled with determination to complete his quest to be a hero.

Even as she hurried forward she told herself it wasn’t possible. Whoever was in front of her was far too small a figure to fit into any mold made by Gideon and besides, her boy was safe in Snow White’s home, back in diapers and most certainly _not_ standing in front of her again, awaiting her arrival as he had in her dreams. Yet her eyes flicked around against her better judgment, searching for the tiny particles that indicated she might have entered the Dream Realm once more.

Not even a fleck of snow drifted past and worry stabbed in Belle’s chest. She cried out again, trying to get the man’s attention, calling louder now as she moved on. “Hello?” She felt the panic in her voice, but couldn’t stop it, not until she knew for sure.

When the cloaked figure in front of her turned. Her body froze, eyes wide with recognition. There was only one person in all the realms who moved with such grace, who could spin on his heel with all of the elegance of any king or queen at court and yet make it something all of his own.

“Rumple…”

Her husband, now wonderfully familiar, smiled from under his cloak and her eyes drank him in. Illuminated by the glow of the decorative bulbs behind her, the rich brown of his gaze sparkled with mischief. Gone were the coat and suit of Mister Gold, replaced with attire more familiar to those from the Enchanted Forest. He wore tight leather pants and a warm, casual shirt, covered with a simple, yet beautifully embroidered vest. This was the Rumple she knew from the castle merged with something more down to earth, a look the untrained eye would almost call common. Belle knew differently, of course. She could see the elegance he favored, understanding immediately that _this_ new look was something very special, something that practically sang of “home.”

“Belle,” Rumple finally spoke as he moved to meet her. His arms extended to enfold her and she rushed to him, letting him surround her with his warmth.

“I thought you were at the shop.”

Her confusion was met with a chuckle as Rumple released her. “I could go back if you wanted, but then we wouldn’t be able to share this.” 

Rumplestiltskin lifted his arm slowly and passed it through the night in a grand gesture that swept away the darkness. Behind the path of his reach small lanterns, candles, and a crackling campfire came to life, illuminating a rustic wooden table, two wicker arm chairs laden with blankets and furs, and a winter meal steaming with warmth. Above the table, smaller lanterns hung from every branch of the newly deposited trees that surrounded them, and the flames of their tiny candles flickered like caught stars.

“Rumple,” Belle gasped as she crossed the border between winter chill and warm glow. Her fingers found the soft fur draped over one of the chairs and ran through it, then drifted to the table, where their teacup rested, awaiting them. Caressing the chip on instinct, Belle’s heart swelled until moisture came to her eyes. She turned back to her husband then, gazing at him through the unshed tears of joy. “You did all of this… for us?”

“For you,” he told her as he stepped closer. He took the pouch from her hand, reached for the fur, and draped it over her shoulders, then guided her to sit in one of the chairs, closest to the orange tongues that licked at the evening air. Once she was settled he covered her again with one of the blankets, then held up the item she’d carried all this way. “ _And_ , for us.”

Belle tipped her head to the side as he gave the pouch back to her. “But this was for-”

“Open it,” Rumple encouraged.

Extracting herself from the cocoon her husband had placed her in, Belle gently tugged at the zipper and reached inside to pull out a single piece of paper. The cream color and flowing script were so instantly familiar that her hand released it to fall back into its dark home, her eyes abandoning the parchment to drift up and meet his. “Our marriage certificate.”

Settling into a squat in front of her, Rumple reached to wrap her hands with his. “I know there isn’t anything that I can say or do that will take away my previous actions, and I know that I’ve made grand gestures and promises before and haven’t lived up to them, but the way I feel for you, Belle… I just…” 

His lip quivered as he spoke and when his voice broke his eyes closed tightly, sending a bolt of his pain deeply into Belle’s heart. Unable to watch him face his torments alone, she released the pouch into her lap so she could properly share the contact between them, squeezing his hands to add her support, willing her own strength to pass through them.

After a single, slow breath he seemed to have gathered himself and his eyes opened. They glistened with unshed tears, but he pressed on. “I need you to know that _this_ time I truly intend to make a fresh start. With you, with Gideon… I’ve been given a wonderful gift, Belle, in both of you, and I hope that you will find a way to move on with me into our next journey together.”

Rumplestiltskin’s body trembled before her and Belle knew it wasn’t the cold or the strain of his physical position that caused the involuntary movement, but the weight of their past pressing down on him. She released his hands and leaned forward to cup his face and wipe away the beginning of a tear that formed in the corner of his eye. Those brown depths held everything in that moment, his emotions, his torments, his hopes and dreams, and she became lost in each and every one as if they were films being played in front of her. Old arguments passed through her mind, followed by the helpless flirtations, and the moments of pure bliss they had shared. It was a muddled history, something so complicated that she doubted anyone else could truly make sense of it, but she understood. 

Before her was a man born to be something wonderful and yet denied that fate by the cruelty of misunderstanding. A single choice that had not been his own had carved a path to his future so deeply into the ground that it ensured he would never be able to climb out from the ravine and find his own way. He _had_ tried so many times and each time the walls he’d clung to so desperately had crumbled beneath his hands, sending him cascading to the bottom. Alone and in pain for so long, anyone would have broken, but somehow, he had continued on, year after year, century after century, always fighting for love in the only way he knew how.

“Rumple.” Belle breathed his name as she brought her forehead to his, wishing he could see everything she had seen, share all that she felt. “I always believed in you. Even when my anger got in the way, somewhere, deep down, I _knew_ you were a better man than anyone believed you could be. Fate has tested us before, but I won’t let it come between us again. I promised you forever-”

“This isn’t about our deal,” Rumple almost barked back at her, panic filling his eyes. “I don’t want you to stay because of some agreement we made years ago. I want you to stay because _you_ want to.” He took the pouch from her lap and held it up again. “There’s the fire. If this is only a representation of our deal, I want you to burn it. We’ll start over, have a new ceremony. Right now or whenever you like.”

Belle caught his arm as it raised, worried he would toss the pouch into the flames on his own. “No, Rumple. _This_ piece of paper isn’t the contract you struck with my father. It represents one of the happiest days of my life.”

Quivering again before her, Rumple finally shed his tears. “Truly?”

“Yes,” she whispered before kissing him. Their lips brushed over each other softly, cautious and sweet, almost as if in reenactment of that first kiss in the Dark Castle when they were perched awkwardly at the spinning wheel, daring to cling to the hope of love.

When they parted, Belle’s hand found his and settled around it so that they held the protected certificate together, clutching at the past while sharing the hopes for their future. “When I tell you I will stay with you forever, _this_ is what I mean. I didn’t agree to marry you because of our deal. I agreed to marry you because I _love_ you, _all_ of you. And if I’ve learned one thing through our love, it’s that even the most beautiful roses have thorns. What we have is more than just that tea cup, Rumple. It’s your spinning wheel, the dagger, my libraries, and the rose that reminded me that there was still hope. All of those things come together in who we are. Those things and so much more. I _want_ this love, Rumple. I’ve thought about it a lot as we tried to help Gideon together and I know now that to keep that love all I have to do is mind the thorns when I tend the rose.”

Her words drifted out into the night, replaced by the gentle lap of water along the shore and the crackle of the fire that warmed her back. In front of her, still crouched in the snow, Rumple seemed frozen in place, unwilling or unable to move. Eyes wide with uncertainty, he gazed up at her in wonder, studied her face, and only after a long examination did he seem able to move again. Slowly one thumb rubbed over the back of her hand and Belle glanced down to watch it trace lazy circles over the cloth of her glove.

There was no way to know what might be running through her husband’s mind and she didn’t want to rush him toward any conclusions. He needed to come to their truth on his own, just as she had. As long as either of them continued to hold doubts in themselves or each other the past would linger in the back of their minds like a storm cloud over a distant sea, looming just out of their reach and threatening to move in.

“I love you, Belle,” Rumple finally told her, voice steadying. “More than I could ever have loved anyone, but I don’t deserve-”

Belle put a finger to his lips to quiet him, refusing to let him continue down that path. “ _This_ is our life now,” she told him with a nod at the arrangement he had put together for their evening. “No more curses. Just the light pushing away the darkness.”

In the warm glow that surrounded him, Rumple’s face softened. His eyes moved from hers to take in the table and the lanterns, the furs and the snow. Finally he nodded, releasing a long breath before meeting her gaze again. “Belle, I had planned to give you everything tonight that I had denied you in the past, but if you truly feel this way, then I only have one thing to ask.”

Extracting the single paper from inside of the leather pouch, Rumplestiltskin held it up for her examination. “Will you continue on _this_ journey with me, from now until the end of time?”

A lump formed in Belle’s throat and tears began to pool in her eyes as she nodded. Her hands joined his, gloved fingers carefully grasping at the foiled edges of the one piece of paper that would hold two declarations of their love from this point forward. “Yes, Rumple,” she managed to whisper past the rush of emotion that threatened to claim her voice. “I will go with you on _this_ journey forever.”

Their lips met again, but this kiss carried all of their love along with it. It was long and lingering, and filled with the promise of passions held back for their return home. When they finally parted, Rumple stood and snapped his fingers, extinguishing the tunnel of tiny lights that had carried Belle to this place.

Somewhere in the distance Belle could swear she heard Grumpy’s familiar cries carried away in the wind. “Wonderful news! Wonderful news!”

She giggled in spite of her self. “Did you have _everyone_ in Storybrooke involved in all of this?”

“I was prepared to give you a second wedding on the spot if that was what you wanted,” Rumple told her as he moved the empty chair to join hers by the fire and took his seat. His hand was reaching for hers even before he was settled and she gladly sought out the contact. “I had everyone waiting by their phones, ready to join us, but turning off the lights was my signal that we should be left alone.”

“So just how long do we have in this new arrangement?” Belle leaned forward to take one of the soft sticks of bread and brought it to her lips, making a seduction of her first bite that elicited a tiny moan from her husband.

“David agreed to keep Gideon overnight,” Rumple murmured, eyes now burning into her, a gaze that brought heat to her body more than any flame. Yet even through the flirtation there was a hitch in his tone, a fraction of a second where hesitation claimed him. No one else would have seen it, but to Belle the absence of it would have stuck out more than the incident itself.

She reached back to give his hand a squeeze and smiled in reassurance. “Perhaps in a few hours we will see how we feel. If you think we should return, we will.”

Belle watched relief wash over Rumplestiltskin and she practically dissolved at the sight of it. Even though he had confessed that his love for her was more than it had been for any other, she knew that the love Rumple had for his sons would forever be stronger. It was a part of him that she never wanted to change, and now, with their new future ahead of them, it was something she would never have to see taken away.

As a gentle winter breeze sent the candle flames dancing around them, Belle rested her head on Rumple’s shoulder and breathed in the peace of the evening. Warm in spite of the cold, she gazed up at the countless lanterns that hung over her head and imagined each as a new memory, hovering just out of reach, ready to be made.

“I love you, Rumple,” she whispered into the night.

She felt a kiss to the top of her head and an arm wrap loosely around her before Rumple answered. “I love you too, sweetheart.” 

The promise set free continued to linger around them as the hours passed, clinging to their hearts even as the last flame stilled and the stars were the only witnesses to their deepest, most pure love.

* * *

The next knock at the door came at three in the morning and even though he’d expected it, David let out a deep groan. Beside him, his wife expressed her own frustrations, moaning as she turned under the blankets.

“He couldn’t have waited _two_ more hours?”

David chuckled and leaned over to kiss her shoulder before hauling himself from the bed and reaching for his clothes. “Gideon would have woken us up soon anyway,” he reminded her. “He probably thinks he’s doing us a favor. This way we just pass the crying baby out the door. No pacing, no bottle feeding, just a little inconvenience and then quiet.”

Beside him the bed creaked and David looked up from getting dressed to see Snow now propped up on one elbow, wide eyes blinking at him in shock. “You know, I think you _actually_ believe that.”

“How many times did you try to keep Emma from moving out? Hm? How long has it taken you to agree to move out of town to our new home?” David smiled at her as he pulled his shirt over his head and ran fingers through his hair to try and tame it. “We almost lost Emma too. Can you honestly say that you don’t understand Rumplestiltskin’s need to be with his son?”

“Not when that need comes several hours before dawn,” Snow huffed before flopping back down and burying herself in the blankets.

Deciding it was best to leave her to what rest she could still have, David padded quietly through the apartment to the locked door, which he opened to reveal an apologetic Mister Gold.

“I’m sorry,” Rumplestiltskin whispered. “I know it’s late. Belle tried to convince me to wait, but-”

David raised a hand to silence the other man, shaking his head against the apology. “To be honest, I expected you’d show up about now. You’re a new father and you’ve been denied so much of the experience already. If you hadn’t come I’d have worried.” He reached out to rest his hand on Gold’s shoulder in an almost fatherly way and guided the man in to the room. “His things are all packed and he’s resting quietly just over there.”

Before he could point out the spare crib, Gold had gravitated toward it like a moth to a flame. David watched in amazement as the older man reached in, lifting the sleeping child in a slow, steady movement that barely caused the small bundle to stir. The whole scene must have taken only seconds, yet father and son seemed caught in tiny flashes of time stitched together into one long sequence that took an hour to play out before his eyes.

“Must be nice,” David muttered as he moved to get Gideon’s bag.

“Pardon?” Rumple spoke to him, but his eyes never left his son.

David nodded at the bundle in Rumple’s arms. “Being able to use magic.”

A look of confusion came over Gold, his eyes narrowing with uncertainty for a moment before he let out a soft chuckle. “Oh, that wasn’t magic, just a father knowing what his son likes best.”

“Still magic,” David insisted. “You want to teach _me_ that trick some time?”

Rumplestiltskin looked up from Gideon and granted David a genuine smile. “Is the man who once teased me over dating advice now come crawling back for a brush up on his parenting skills?” The line was delivered in the voice of the old Dark One, impish and playful, yet the sincerity and gratitude behind it was so real that it practically filled the room like a fog.

“You never needed dating advice,” David told him, returning the honesty. “Only the confidence to go with what you already knew.”

Crossing the room to take the bag from him, Gold nodded once to David, settled the strap on his shoulder and poked a single finger his way. “And _you_ only need the same,” he announced before striding to the door. “Thank your wife for me.”

“I will,” David assured him.

Something made Gold pause as he exited, catching him in the threshold, hand still on the knob, eyes peering between the gap of the still open door and its frame. “Plenty of time to chat later,” he muttered, almost as if caught up in an afterthought. “Lunch next week?” There was a shrug of his shoulders and a return of his sheepish smile before he finished his explanation. “We all eat some time, after all.”

David grinned. “Sure. I’d like that.” It wasn’t until the door was closed, sealing him inside of his own, quiet home, that he realized just how much he truly would.


End file.
